


Glitching Memories

by xylar



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Burns, Italics, Minor Violence, ive listened to so many songs on repeat, mention of manipulation, uhh idk what to put here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:29:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28898940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xylar/pseuds/xylar
Summary: Memories? They're hard to come by aren't they?Are you sure they are your memories and not someone else's?They do seem a little foggy don't they?
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Kudos: 17





	1. Hello?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this story was orginally based off of this post on twitter, go support them!!  
> https://twitter.com/o0oSocko0o/status/1346170781521367047?s=20
> 
> [this story takes place before the blowing up of l'manburg and has a completely different plot than the actual dsmp plot]

There was a dull click and a voice echoed from the black box “Hi! Hello everyone!” laughter followed then the tape glitched out. Ranboo rubbed his eyes, he’d started keeping a digital ‘memory book’ but he’d been pushed into water, he wasn’t sure who did it. Maybe he didn’t care. He’d been so shocked at the feeling of nothingness around him that he’d forgotten. Forgotten that water hurts him. Forgotten how much it _burns_. 

His hair was sopping and his skin burned but he didn’t really care. Ranboo just kept repeatedly clicking the start button as if that would make it work. He was so angry at himself. 

The water had just felt oddly comforting, and he kept seeing images float around him. There were people he didn’t remember, people who smiled and waved as he walked down a red carpet. Then his vision glitched as if he was watching a tv screen. There were so many injured, he couldn’t save them all. The dragon sucked in a breath and Ranboo watched as his friends, _were they his friends?_ Got cut down in front of him by the purple flames. His throat caught and he ran, ran as fast as he could — sword out reaching. He watched as he plunged it straight into the dragon's chest. The dragon looked at him, as if to say _Thank you._ He didn’t understand, his vision went glitchy, and darkness surrounded him. 

Then the pain started, the burning sensation ripped through his skin. It hurt, it felt cold at first, almost comforting. Then his skin heated up and the pain rippled down his arms. His suit was ruined but he didn’t care as his body threw him around in little gaps throughout the world. The gaps hurt more than the water. Then he woke up in his safe space, or at least he thought it was safe. A green masked figure stood over him, the smile looking as if it was crying somehow, as if a smile could show emotions. The world glitched around him again, the images fluttering around his face.

He stood at a portal opening, his sword sat on his hip. He walked towards it, he stopped at the threshold of the portal. Someone stood in the reflection of the portal, he had dirty blonde hair. His eyes were green and seemed sharp as if he watched everything that went on around him. He looked down at his hands, purple blood staining them. The boy in the reflection didn’t seem to care. He pushed his hair out of his eyes. The boy walked through the portal, head high and once he went through. There was an empty abyss surrounding him. _The Void_ , a voice whispered. He ignored it and walked forward, there seemed to be a city of some kind. He walked forward, tall figures whispered in a dialect he couldn’t understand. Then he was on a ship, thousands of blocks in the air, he walked into the belly of the ship and there was a throne. It looked so...empty...he hadn’t meant to put the crown on, he hadn’t meant to. He swore he hadn’t meant to. But he had put it on. He had ruled. His reflection started to become more of an end man, rather than a human. His skin had turned white and black, hands turning more into claws than hands. Then he got sick, the tight air around him pushed in on his chest. He couldn’t focus anymore, he couldn’t _lead_. Eventually he left, the end men watched him leave. They wanted their crown back, but knew it would return someday. _Someday._

He was back, the room was pitch black, the obsidian was crying. Ranboo looked around, he looked for a mask, anything. _It was too dark to see._ Normally he could see fine in the dark, but for the first time since he could remember the crown slipped off his head. He felt as if he could breathe, as if a weight was pulled off his chest. He looked down at his hands, they were such a calming color of peach. There was still left over color of purple, the stain would never leave but it just gave him a reason to keep going. The crown hadn’t disappeared so he knew the end men didn’t want it back yet. They still wanted him to do _something._ But they were letting him breathe. _Breathe._ They let him suck the oxygen into his lungs. Maybe the end men cared more about him than the humans. He stood up, legs shaking. His skin was perfectly fine, but he knew the second the crown was back on the pain would come back. The glistening pain would be back. He sighed, grabbing his bag and putting the crown into it. He had taken off his suit jacket, he wore a simple white button up. His black slacks were torn on the knees, but he could wear them. As he left his safe spot and started the walk back to his house, he noticed it was raining. The soft pattern of rain hit against his skin, it truly felt refreshing to not burn in water. He stood in the rain, in the middle of a lake, his shoes in hand just letting the rain hit his face. Ranboo just hoped that no one looked twice. He just hoped that when the time came, putting the crown on wouldn’t hurt too bad. He let out a sharp laugh, putting his arms out and twirling in a circle. Ranboo could feel eyes watching him, but he honestly couldn’t care less anymore. He was temporarily free. His laughter bubbled up even more, he looked straight up into the grey clouds that rumbled by, as the rain plastered his clothes onto his skin. Eventually he heard murmurs. He looked down from the sky, letting his arms hit his sides. He was face to face with Fundy and Tubbo. They stood under an umbrella, watching Ranboo confusion lacing their faces. Ranboo, picked up his shoes from the pond, lake whatever it was. And walked towards Tubbo and Fundy.

“Hi,” Ranboo said. At least his voice hadn’t changed, though his appearance had _drastically._

“Ranboo?” Tubbo asked, his eyes were so confused.

Ranboo put his hands in front of his face, they were still stained purple, “Uh yeah,” he murmured. 

“You look different,” Tubbo stammered. 

He shrugged, “Side effects of the crown I guess.”

“The crown?” Fundy asked.

“Uh yeah, the _crown_ ,” Ranboo said, he knew the last word was in the dialect that the end men used. He couldn’t care less to use the wrong dialect. He was cold and well drenched. 

“Hah, Ranboo?” Tubbo asked, fumbling over his words.

“Can we go inside somewhere?” Ranboo asked.

“Yeah, yeah, inside. Okay,” Tubbo said, he seemed kinda off — scared maybe. 

Tubbo began to walk away and Ranboo followed, his socks squished in the mud and water. Everything just felt so _real_ for once in his life. Everything had its own color, nothing was inverted. He forgot how beautiful the world actually was. He had forgotten that things even looked like this — that certain colors belonged to certain things. He’d forgotten so much...so much about the overworld.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!! this is my first piece posted here so i don't know how a lot of this works. but thank you for the support anyways! other chapters will be longer, depending on how im feeling. chapters will probs average around 1k-4k words or more.


	2. Burning?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _There's a point to everything you do. Everything that occurs daily. Isn't that right Ranboo?_

Ranboo followed Tubbo and Fundy to the middle of L’manburg. There were so many colors surrounding him he didn't know how to react. He subconsciously twirled in a circle, looking at the colors; the red, yellow and blues. L'manburg's flag looked different than usual, like the colors were in the wrong place… He shrugged ignoring it, figuring it was a side effect of the crown. Everything is a side effect of something when you think about it. Actually, was the crown a _side effect?_

“What?” Tubbo asked.

“Huh? I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, must’ve heard something then...” Tubbo said, his voice shaking.

“Is something wrong?” Ranboo asked, cocking his head in a way that the end men would if they had a question. They were cute little things, end men. 

“No, no, nothings wrong, nothings wrong,” stammered Tubbo.

“Oh, okay…” Ranboo said, as he followed Tubbo inside of a small house filled with barrels and just things in general. Ranboo pushed away a box full of stuff, wondering who lived here and why it was such a mess. They would never let him have a mess like this. _Who's they?_ Ranboo ignored the itching questions that didn’t seem to be him and sat his bag and shoes down by the door. He watched as Fundy and Tubbo turned, whispering and left Ranboo where he was. _That was strange...Was this_ his _house? Did he live here?_ Ranboo waved a hand over his head as if that would make the weird thoughts disappear almost instantly. As if these thoughts weren’t normal. They are normal thoughts _aren't they?_ Ranboo looked around his house, pushing things out of the way and clearing the floor so he could maneuver better around. He wiped his hands on his pants, _why was he wearing dress pants? There was no event happening._ Then the world around him glitched, there were so many pictures...they were so colorful...His head pounded but he stood still watching as the colors and pictures surrounded him. 

The pictures blurred around him, moving so fast that he could barely catch them in his hand. He reached out, but as he watched his hands as purple began to race up his arms. The purple moved so quickly, it ran in trendrels up his arms as if it was some kind of sea creature. Before he knew it, he was ripping open his bag. Grabbing the crown and placing it on his head. He didn’t like the crown, it blurred everything together but this time he felt the need to wear it, as if this purple gunk racing up his arms would kill him. The second the crown was placed onto his head, he felt as if his memories were being ripped away from him, and new ones were being placed back. Then the itching sensation of new skin being placed atop old skin burned through his body. He knew it would hurt, but he wasn’t aware of how much it would hut. He didn’t want to cry, he knew it would hurt but he let the tears run down his cheeks, burning him as they trailed down his cheeks. Why did he put the crown back on? Why? Why? _Why?_ He had been free, the end men had let him _breathe._ So why did he put it back on? What was the point of anything really? 

_Well there's a lot of points, Ranboo. There's a point to everything you do. Everything that occurs daily. Why do you wake up each day and make breakfast? To live. Why do you take a walk past that pond every morning? To feed the fish. Why do you shove things in chests, with no organization everyday? To have things, to make it seem as if you own something more than just memories you’ve lost. You do something everyday to create Ranboo. To create memories, to have something to live for, Yes? I am correct aren’t I?_

Ranboo ignored the person in his brain, focusing on the more important things: bandages, an extra pair of clothing, and a towel since he was still soaking wet. He eventually found a towel and promptly went back to wringing out his clothes and ruffling his hair. Water dripped on the floor from wringing out his pants, which he’d have to clean up next. His multi-colored horns getting stuck in the towel, tearing tiny holes in the towel. He sighed, rummaging through the chest filled with stuff, there was nothing really useful, it was really just junk. He eventually found a pair of forgotten sweatpants and a faded t-shirt saying ‘I went to the ConnorEatsPantsies and all I got was this stupid shirt.’ He shrugged unbuttoning the shirt he was wearing and tugging on the t-shirt. It was surprisingly soft, which he hadn’t been expecting considering it had been sitting at the bottom of a chest filled with _things_. Once he had new clothing on he cleaned up the water that was all over the floor with the same towel he had been using previously, not knowing where the second one was. Did he even own more than one towel?He shrugged, and went back to moving chests around and fixing the beds that his pets slept on. Once he had cleaned up the mess he grabbed his ruined suit and shoved it into a barrel that sat next to his bed, along with his other clothing that was ruined beyond repair. He really should just through the suits out but he couldn’t care less. After smoothing out a red carpet on the wooden floors so his feet wouldn’t get cold when he was awoken by Karl and Quackity doing whatever they do when it's night time. 

Ranboo looked out the front window of his house, watching as Fundy pulled up the banners and tucked them behind the stands. Fundy did the same thing every night and every morning, even if he hadn’t slept at all that day. Each evening Fundy unhooked the banners in the evening putting them in the chests beside the stands and every morning he pulled the banners out of the chests and re-hooked them onto the stands. Ranboo watched as Fundy stood in front of a stand longer than usual, hesitant to pull down the banners. It was the same each night. The keyboard sat in the stand, collecting dust and dirt from the passing days. Yet Fundy still sat behind the stand, hands hovering over the keys as if it would bring someone back or solve some kind of problem. Ranboo looked away, he had felt he was intruding on something and didn’t want to watch much longer. Though with everything lit up around L’manburg and with the events that had happened that day, Ranboo had a feeling sleep wouldn’t be coming soon. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!! i know i posted yesterday, but i was really enjoying writing this sooo yeah you get a second chapter a day after the first chapter lolz. 
> 
> dont expect an update tomorrow cuz i dunno if i'll still wanna work on this fic, but i hope you enjoyed it anyways


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